A Demise in Values

It's a disturbing trend. In the rush to improve the environment, many poor people are being forgotten, left to die during the world economic collapse. Humans have been reduced to marks in the "carbon emitter" category, expendable whenever natural resources can be saved. Millions are starving because of the financial collapse.

Here is one example of this disheartening trend - a piece entitled, "Best Way to Cut Pollution? Cut Population". It is subtitled, "A study argues that human life could be the climate's worst threat, and birth control one of our best hopes." How is human life suddenly a threat to the climate? This is an extraordinary perversion of values. It exalts climate over human life. It is the result of a myopic view of the world and of nature as it was known fifty years ago.

What is lacking is the human will that the generation of John F. Kennedy relied on when it decided to go to the moon. Today it is widely known that the Earth is no longer the largest source of water in the solar system. That water can be considered "scarce" is only conceivable if the larger water sources of Europa and a couple of the other moons of Saturn and Jupiter are ignored. With the established technologies that have been used for space travel (the trip to Jupiter has been made in just over a year), a human trip to Europa is far more feasible than was a human trip to the moon in the year 1956, before humans had ever reached space. The will that the Kennedy generation had for exploration has been replaced with a Eastern philosophical view of the world where humans are merely a part of nature, and nature is to be resepected and preserved.

It may seem unrealistic to suggest human exploration of the moons of Jupiter. It certainly seemed unrealistic to many people to suggest a human expedition to the moon back in the year 1956. Of course, humans reached the moon in less than fourteen years.

It is true that world's population is increasing and that overpopulation is a problem. It is true that without contraception, the world would be more overpopulated. It is true that taking measures to respect and preserve the environment are good. But every concept has its limits, including the preservation of ecology. Humans should never be sacrificed to save trees, and it is testimony to the demise in values that the topic is even being broached.